How Notion's founder got to know me.

July 29, 2023 - 3:07 PM. I was commuting to a Notion event here in Bangalore when one call made my dream come true.

It was my friend. He asked me this:

“Can you present your product on stage?”

I was like “Ehh…” because I was baffled.

Saying yes meant living my best experience ever.

Saying no meant regretting in the future.

If you were in my shoes, you’d have said yes without hesitation.

But, I wasn't prepared and had never spoken in front of such a large audience.

“You’re only 17. Everyone in there is smarter and more experienced than you. And the co-founder of Notion - Akshay Kothari will be there.”

“What if you start yapping crap and ruin your reputation?”

Countless thoughts like them crossed my mind in that couple of minutes.

Then, I dropped every goddamn voice in my head and said “Hell yeah buddy, I’ll do it!”

I decided to present LifeLab.

But I was regretting it a few seconds later...

I opened up its sales copy. Impossible to read it.

I opened up the template page. It wasn’t working.

I had to design the background slide. But without my laptop and no way of going home, it was complicated.

Using Figma on my phone was my only chance. I did my best to design the slide. I was able to do the least necessary.

When it was time I thought: "I will go on stage and talk about LifeLab from my heart because I built it and there’s no one else who can talk about it better than me"

And boom! That's what I did.

My hands were slightly shivering, but I survived 😆

I started my speech with “Hey Notionistas! How are y’all today?" the reply from over 200 people got me into the flow state and the rest was history.

Once I finished I heard claps everywhere, some clicking pictures, my phone flooded with LinkedIn connection requests, and whatnot.

To be honest I was stunned.

After my keynote, Akshay (co-founder of Notion) went on the stage.

And guess what? He mentioned me in his speech.

I was over the roof 🤯

I never imagined this would happen in my wildest dreams!

Imagine if I said “NO” to my friend.

I wrote this to remind you to always say YES to new opportunities because you will see something magical and beautiful on the other side.

P.S. Here’s a pic of me speaking: